Say... hasn't this "line item veto" issue come up again and again? It seems like I remember years ago that the general consensus was that Presidents had it, they just couldn't use it, or something bizarre like that. What's the deal with that? Can someone tell me in very short words, because it's early and I'm barely with it.
Congress tried granting this power in the 1990s, Clinton tried using it, and SCOTUS said no dice - Congress could not give away its enumerated powers without a Constitutional Amendment.
In 1998 the Supreme Court ruled that line item veto was unconstitutional. I don't know if that is what you were trying to recall.
The line item veto is unconstitutional, but since this is nothing more than a comical political stunt, it doesn't matter.
Line item veto was pushed by Reagan when he was in office because democrats had so much pork and bad laws hidden in bills put on his desk. The GOP thought it a good idea and gave Klinton the power through law to use the line item veto, which he did. However, some liberal group sued and challenged the line item veto in court and the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.
I think the reasoning used by the USSC in overturning line item veto is that it gave the President what amounted to the power to rewrite legislation presented to him by Congress. Since the Constitution doesn't give the executive branch power to write legislation, they overturned it. IMHO, that was the right decision.
Interestingly, if memory serves, the constitution of the Confederate States of America, 1861, did give the exectutive branch a line item veto.